Volunteering at my mom’s church every morning, I feel a sense of goody goodness inside me. Seeing the smiling faces of the people around me made me inexplicably happy. I just wish it wasn’t solely through the church. Churches have too soon became mega-powers of the city. The U.S. government hasn’t done anything to help us so we had to help ourselves.

No other organisation had the manpower to serve this many people and had the backing of the townspeople. Many of the frontline fighters gave their supplies through to them. Steven was currently being heralded as the number one up and coming fighter. He comes back every day with some sort of new delectable beast and brings it to the church.

Monsters have started gathering outside the town and attacking in small groups. We’ve had to create a fighting force to counteract these beasts rather recently.

Many of these monsters came in similar forms of animals already found on Earth. Large boars and mutated deer roamed and killed freely on the outskirts of town. All animals also went through some sort of transformation as the mana has enhanced themselves as well. Bears soon became the biggest threat as they grew to the 1000 - 2000 pound range. Only few people have the guts to fight a monster of that size.

New monsters have starting appearing as well that nobody knows from where they have come from. Some speculate they’ve been coming from the gigantic mountains to the east. Every now and then you can look towards those mountains and see a giant winged beast flying midair. A slight earthquake-like rumble would shake you and you would go on with your day like nothing happened. Giant beasts roamed not too far away, a fear in everyone to grow stronger pervaded in our minds.

Winged beasts we call ‘Wylaks’ come at dawn every morning and attack the storage houses we store the food in. Mages now stand guard starting at 4 am to protect them from being taken. A small wall has been erected outside the small town on the roads to block off any wild animals.

Bull like beasts, ‘Ukuis’, have started trampling the forest surrounding us to the south. Their hide is extremely thick, some people have been making them into comfortable blankets. Their red tail has become a sign of power, as most fighters will hang them from their belt proudly. Anyone who carries one of those is deeply respected and welcomed anywhere.

Internet and communication is starting to be developed again, our mana-enhanced engineers taking on the task, wanting to communicate with the outside world. The power plant in the town over has been fixed, but power lines have all been stripped away. Certain parts of the town seem to be getting power in some way. I’m not exactly sure how but I’m sure it’s someone with an ability of sorts.

Catching glimpses of this gossip day in and day out, is a nice to change for me. I’ve been coming out of my shell more, talking to more people. Although I don’t have a true ‘friend’, talking with the townspeople has been comforting.

Greater defensive measures have been enacted slowly and surely over the course of the past two weeks. staving off the small hordes of monsters. Everything seems to be fine for now, although a bad feeling of something stronger coming through soon does create a little bit of fear in me.

“Here’s your meat and corn. Enjoy” I smile and pass the food along to the people lining up.

Suddenly, a feeling in my gut overwhelms me. It wasn’t a hunger or a pain, it was more like an instinctual feeling. It was telling me I needed to get back to my campsite. I needed to get back their immediately, something was happening.

Seeing my Mom already distracted talking to a young couple beside me at the welcoming booth, I scurry away silently.

Rushing through the forest with frantic thoughts, I let the scratchy brush graze my thighs. What could this feeling be? Why am I so worried about it?

Making my way up the stream and following the bend, a scent I distinctly remember wafts through my nose. A scent distinctly different than any other. The scent of death and blood.

Before I make it to the campsite, I push my way through the forest, away from the river. I decide I want to scout out the area before coming across the obvious path alongside the stream. I try to mask my footsteps but the dense foliage on the forest floor makes it impossible to be quiet. Nearing towards the clearing in front of me, I peer through the brush. An unimaginable scene played out before me.

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A group of at least 15 insect-like, scaly monsters lay dead in front of me. Their bodies resembled praying mantises, with large translucent wings on their celery-like backs. Most however, had their wings torn completely off, a green substance covering their bodies.

The campsite was now filled with a noticeable silence. No birds sang, no crickets chirped, the grass dared to sway in the wind.

In the caverne I called home, a silhouette of a human-like being appeared, sitting. It’s dull, golden eyes had a clear contrast to the darkness surrounding it. Lost in it’s eyes, a soft voice called out to me, overwhelming my weak soul.

“Come here, child.”

Entranced by the warm, inviting pitch, I unwaveringly move from my hiding spot and carefully across the mutilated insects. I don’t notice that my usual anxiety and fears have completely disappeared.

The closer I get, the more I can see her features. An autumn-brown colored monk robe covered their body almost entirely. Odd splotches of a tired, azure blue, cover parts of her body, dripping wet from the bottom part of the robe. She sounded perfectly fine but it looked like the blue liquid was her blood or at least something similar.

“I don’t mean any harm.” I stutter harshly. “Please, don’t hurt me.”

“I won’t hurt you, please sit.” She asserted back.

An awkward silence lasted for a few minutes before she abruptly interrupted it. Something like a sigh escaped her lips.

“I need some help and in return I can help you. I notice you and your surroundings are currently very weak, I’m assuming this world just evolved?”

“Yeah, if ‘evolved’ is the right word. The system integrated with us around a couple weeks ago.”

“I see. On my planet, we’ve have what you called ‘the system’ for 10,000 years. I can feel the new energies of this planet. It feels wonderful.” She takes a deep breath in through her slotted nose. Her eyes deeply pierce my soul, feeling very vulnerable at the moment. This person could probably kill me at anytime, it’d be a good idea if I just went along with everything.

“What level are you?” I curiously ask, more than a million other important questions.

“Too high for this planet, bad things will start happening if I stay here too long. I just need to heal up back to full power before I can leave.”

“Are you injured?”

A silent piercing gaze drills into my pained eyes. Not deciding to look away from her eyes for fear of seeming weaker than I already am, I grit my teeth as tears fall down my cheek.

“Do you want great power?”

“Yes.” I state, not anxiously moving, but standing perfectly still. My breathing now slowed down, my heartbeat almost coming to a complete stop.

“I am what you call a Byzcrainck but the closest thing in the english language is called a Mana-leecher. I can only manipulate mana through other beings. I can also read your mana and I know you’re a practical human and that you’ll say yes to my offer. You’re mana pool is also the smallest I’ve ever observed but I can make it do. Babies on my home planet are born with more mana in their toes. Ahahahaha”

“Why me? Why not use someone stronger than me?”

“It’s simple. You’re not a part of the system and aren’t being observed at all. I need to stay under the radar as much as possible and gain strength as fast as possible. Currently, at this moment in time, it would take me about 10 years for me to cycle all my mana through you.. That’s why I need to strengthen your mana pool and speed of regeneration first.

“Why do you need to cycle your mana through me?”

“I am poisoned by the Kleithjar, those disgusting insectoids outside, and I can’t use my mana at all. They poisoned my mana well, my abilities are very limited at the moment. Don't be naive though, I defeated the Kleithjar with only my left fist. I need to purify and cleanse my mana through another being, you, before I can go back to my home planet.

“I can’t be here all day though, I sneak out as often as I can but I can’t stay, my parents would be angry.”

“You don’t have a choice in the matter. You don’t get to leave.”

I stammer my words and inch my body reflexively away. “People will start looking for me, my mother will get the whole town to search for me.”

“I have methods to hide you from them, it is inconsequential. I need you or I will perish soon enough”

Do I want this? I can finally get away from my parents and become stronger, it's exactly what I wanted. Why do I feel so anxious about this? It just seems too good to be true. It also will bring a big a change to my life and I’ve never been good at changes. Pausing for a bit too long, I decide to respond.

“Can I talk to my family and tell them I’ll be gone for a while? I need to at least tell them goodbye, I don’t want them to worry about me.”

“. . . You can. If you don’t come back in 12 hours, I will find you and your family, kill them, and find someone else.”

“Okay. I’ll come back, I promise.”